We are Now Choosing Between Guns and Words

The authors of the Bill of Rights created the Second Amendment(1) for a purpose. They wanted the Federal Government, despite its great strength, to treat The People as equals. President Obama’s anti-gun proposals restrict the already weak right of civilian self-defense in the face of a powerfully armed government. That is exactly what I fear. I would rather trust my fellow citizens with their many conflicting interests, than trust the continued kindness of a powerful government. Bad things happen when the government stops talking and starts shooting. Very bad things happened right here in the United States. I don’t want them to happen again.

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Most recently, the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms murdered 76 men, women and children in Waco Texas in 1993.

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Before that, the Ohio National Guard shot nine students, four of whom died, at Kent State University in 1970.

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Police and firemen turned dogs and fire hoses on disarmed blacks in Birmingham, Alabama in early 1963.

The sheriff stole ballot boxes and threatened peaceful citizens in Athens, Tennessee in 1946. Led by returning army veterans, the citizens didn’t put up with it.

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The United States disarmed and interned 110,000 Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. The US government apologized 44 years later under Ronald Reagan.

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In 1890, Federal agents disarmed and murdered 150 to 300 Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Most of those murdered were women and children. The Indians were disarmed “for their own safety.”

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The fugitive slave law of 1850 required that escaped slaves be returned to their owner. Accused slaves were not allowed to testify on their own behalf and trial by jury was denied. Gun prohibition expanded after the civil war to deny newly freed slaves and immigrants the right to defend themselves.

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The Second Amendment isn’t about sport. The Second Amendment exists to keep politicians and law enforcement talking to us rather than demanding our obedience at gunpoint. The Second Amendment discourages government officials from using guns when words would suffice. That really bothers some politicians and law enforcement officers.

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When we disarm honest citizens, we are choosing guns over words. By disarming honest citizens, we are telling our government officials they no longer need listen to the people. We are choosing state sponsored violence over the plodding frustration of peaceful political discussion. That should frighten us all.

(1) in case you forgot, the Second Amendment to the Constitution reads, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

(2) No particular offense intended if you are one of the many corrupt politicians I left out of the montage.